Carrier performance at one airport
WN→LGA
Southwest Airlines at LaGuardia
- Departures
- 11,715
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 10
- Rank here
- #6 of 9
Southwest Airlines at New York carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 11,715 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 56,427 at 74.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 4 points behind the 72.4% weighted average across all carriers at LGA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
68.7%
11,163 completed departures
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
4.30%
At LGA, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at LGA
These figures cover 12,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at LGA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 74.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 57.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,324 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 56,427 | 74.2% | 69 min | 6.00% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 29,531 | 74.0% | 78 min | 4.28% | C− |
| United Airlines | 9,068 | 71.4% | 88 min | 3.11% | C− |
| American Airlines | 17,147 | 71.1% | 92 min | 4.16% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,953 | 70.8% | 80 min | 6.96% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 11,715 | 68.7% | 67 min | 4.30% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 630 | 66.4% | 89 min | 4.44% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,458 | 66.4% | 79 min | 4.46% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,324 | 57.3% | 112 min | 7.31% | D− |
Frontier Airlines cancels 7.3% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from LGA
Southwest Airlines operates 10 routes out of LGA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA to MDW · Chicago | 2,391 | 70.2% | 67 min | 5.23% | C− |
| LGA to DAL · Dallas | 1,558 | 72.7% | 67 min | 4.17% | C− |
| LGA to DEN · Denver | 1,516 | 59.3% | 63 min | 4.02% | D− |
| LGA to BNA · Nashville | 1,455 | 66.9% | 61 min | 4.54% | C− |
| LGA to STL · St. Louis | 1,395 | 73.3% | 68 min | 3.80% | C− |
| LGA to HOU · Houston | 1,359 | 71.7% | 63 min | 3.68% | C− |
| LGA to MCI · Kansas City | 839 | 65.8% | 69 min | 4.41% | C− |
| LGA to ATL · Atlanta | 700 | 75.1% | 74 min | 3.29% | B− |
| LGA to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 333 | 53.9% | 80 min | 4.20% | F− |
| LGA to OMA · Omahathin sample | 166 | 65.4% | 85 min | 6.02% | C− |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 33 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,205 flights88.8%
- 8am–11am1,677 flights77.5%
- 11am–2pm1,919 flights71.1%
- 2pm–5pm2,640 flights59.9%
- 5pm–8pm1,988 flights55.8%
- 8pm–5am1,286 flights55.5%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.5% on time, against 88.8% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 2,640 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 58.3% on time, 28 points below January, the best at 85.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. December was the busiest month here, with 1,026 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 233,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 232,590 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.30%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
10.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 11,715 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.30% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 11,163 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at LGA
How often is Southwest Airlines at LGA delayed?
About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 31.3% of the 11,715 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at LGA?
Republic Airways leads at 74.2% on time across 56,427 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 57.3%, a gap of 17 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Southwest Airlines at LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 55.5%, 33 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are August delays on Southwest Airlines at LGA?
August is the weakest month at 58.3% on time, compared with 85.8% in January. Across the year that is 28 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.